ACEN to tap loans for capex this year

BY LENIE LECTURA – APRIL 25, 2023
from Business Mirror

ACEN Corp. is planning to borrow up to P30 billion to partly fund its capital expenditure (capex) this year.

“In terms of new debts, we are projecting to borrow an additional of P30 billion.  We’re also looking at equity offering by way of the preferred shares.  This is not part of the P30 billion,” said ACEN Chief Financial Officer Cora Dizon after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting held Monday afternoon.

ACEN is allocating as much as P70 billion in capex this year to mainly fund its renewable energy (RE) projects as part of its goal of hitting 20,000 megawatts (MW), or 20 gigawatts (GW), of renewables over the next 7 years.

“To get to 20GW, we would look at our financing sources as well and that includes some forms of equity. That’s why this morning, the stockholders also approved the conversion of some of our common shares to preferred shares and the potential issuances of these newly preferred shares. So, it’s going to be both debt and equity,” ACEN President Eric Francia said during a press briefing.

ACEN currently has about 4,000 MW of attributable renewables capacity in operation and under construction across the Philippines and the region.

The company accelerated its renewables expansion throughout last year, spending P50.6 billion in capex as it started construction of over 1,300 MW of new solar and wind farms in the Philippines, Australia, and India during the year.

During the meeting, Francia said the company continues to execute its renewables expansion across key markets in the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia.

“The Philippines continues to be our core market, accounting for 40 percent of our generation portfolio. We promptly responded to invest in new capacity amidst the tightening power supply situation brought about by resurgent electricity demand,” he said.